Elections are always riddled with controversy over voting. There’s that whole Bush stolen election thing (I think he did it), voting machine accuracy and the latest GOP attacks on voter’s rights brought to light by the ACLU.

Yes, it seems the Republicans will do almost anything to keep voters away from the polls. Of course, they aren’t the only ones.

So how can you fight back? Well, you cannot actually vote twice - that would be illegal and very very wrong. But you can carpool to your voting booth, ensuring other greenies like yourself vote yes on good green policy and save fuel along the way! And Al Gore’s Live Earth has partnered with Zimride.com to help you out.

Carpolling, if you will.

Image source: © Miflippo | Dreamstime.com

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The webcast which was organized by Power Vote — spear headers of the Energy Action Coalition —  and seeks to emphasize the issue of climate change in the current election. The webcast is co-sponsored by Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection: the Alliance’s We Campaign has enlisted some 1.6 million individuals committed to solving our climate crisis.

Along with this webcast, Power Vote will be kicking off six days of Get Out the (Power) Vote campaigning on October 29, leading up to Election Day. They’re asking young people to gather on campuses and in communities across the country to watch the webcast together.

WHO: Energy Action Coalition and We Campaign
WHAT: Power Vote live webcast featuring Al Gore
WHEN: Wednesday, October 29, 5:30 p.m. PST / 6:30 p.m. MST / 7:30 p.m. CST / 8:30 p.m. EST

To RSVP for the webcast, visit http://events.powervote.org

>>Live Blog

Al Gore opens up to Buffalo Springfield’s Somethings Happening Here

Now JFK’s Man-On-The-Moon speech

Power Vote speaking about the 300,000 young people signing the Power Vote pledge

These Power Vote people like Al Gore - duh!

Al notes campuses Univ Maryland, Portland State, and Univ of Georgia did an awesome job!

Gore says Obama and McCain need to be accountable for the climate crisis

Gore says we went to Iraq for oil!

He links the climate crisis to every other crisis we have …

He says we need to be fuel independent in 10 years

More references to JFK. He is a big part of this election, i.e. Obama

Talking about the 700 Bilion bailout and its connection to the climate and the economy

Gore demands we change our infrastructure from carbon fuels to renewables

Says we need to get out and vote!

Says we need to solve the economic crisis with green jobs and enviromental change

Must build a renewable energy infrastructure

His iPhone just started ringing…

He is takign audience questions

He notes that people dont quite have the right amount of urgency for the climate crisis - we need to step up! there is a Bill McKibben joke there somewhere.

Gore is equating civil rights to climate action.

Talks about how the truth will save us with respect to the climate - Did he borrow one of Obama’s writers?

Al says he got in to this climate-stuff when he was in college - that was a long time ago!

Gore says efficiency and conservation are nubmer one!

Renewable energy is number 2

Says we also need a smart grid to accomadate the renewables

Wait, was the smart grid number 3?? I need Al’s iPhone number.

American biz loses 120 Bil/year due to grid failures…eeks!

Al quotes “Dont ever doubt that a small group of people can change the world, that is the only way the world has changed”

Gore says this election is critical in climate change policy due to record turnout in voting

Al thanks everyone for their effort at Power Vote

Power Vote is taking a 6 day initiative to get the vote out!

“Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that generation” - Nelson Mandela, Make Poverty History rally, Trafalgar Square, London, UK, February 2005

What makes a political leader to be great? What makes a generation to be great? To think of it, one word defines it - sustainability. Would this, then, be a moral issue or an economic issue?

Does the world’s population today — both older and younger segments — understand the social dilemma that the next generation of leaders just on the threshold of global influence find themselves in?

Yes, next generation of leaders. Because we can no longer hedge our hopes and beliefs and inspirations on leaders who are stuck in the time warp of old politics.

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Believe it or not, inspiring and effective political personalities do exist. Not only that, but they are the sort of figures a country should expect to lead them.

With the US presidential election on the doorstep, both the candidates are bandying promises of “change.” This week’s spotlight, Political Leaders You Can Believe In, will seek to reveal politicians who have already succeeded in delivering on the promise of positive change. In doing so, we hope to raise the bar for the US presidential candidates and encourage voters to hold the candidates to some of the following pledges.

Read more of this story »

The Climate Action PAC will start with New York State legislative seats in 2008 and local races all over the state in 2009. The overall goal, according to the NY League of Conservation Voters, is to get politicians thinking about developing a comprehensive statewide energy plan.

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The successful presidential candidate will be responsible for leading his/her nation in reducing its carbon emissions, increasing its fuel efficiency standards, and developing its nascent clean energy industry. The president will also be charged with responding to parts of the country hit hard by climate change conditions, like droughts, fires, and storms.

Fortunately, voters won’t have to make their decision in the dark. The League of Conservation Voters (LCV), a non-partisan organization that describes itself as "the independent political voice for the environment," has compiled a reference chart to show voters where candidates stand on climate change.

The following are the top five presidential candidates of 2008, based on the issue of climate change. In order to assess how serious candidates truly are about the issue of global warming, they are organized below according to how well they scored out of 100 on an overall evaluation of their environmental policies, starting with the highest scorer. (And no, Steven Colbert didn’t make the list, no matter how much natural gas he provides.)

Barack Obama (96) supports:

• 80% reductions of CO2 production by 2050.
• 50 mpg fleet-wide automotive standard by 2025.
• 25% renewable electrical energy standard by 2025.
• 50% reduction in energy intensity by 2030.
• Investing in liquid coal if it reduces carbon pollution by 10%; will consider standards that ban new conventional coal plants.

Dennis Kucinich (92) supports:

• 80% reductions of CO2 production by 2050.
• 40 mpg automotive standards; supported 33 mpg automotive standard in 2005.
• 20% renewable electrical energy standard by 2010.
• General energy efficiency, although he has no target specified.
• [Has no articulated position on new coal plants and liquid coal.]

Hillary Clinton (90) supports:

• 80% reductions of CO2 production by 2050.
• 35 mpg fleet-wide automotive standard by 2017.
• 20% renewable electrical energy standard by 2020.
• 10% reduction in energy consumption by 2020.
• Investing in liquid coal if it reduces carbon pollution by 20%.

Joe Biden (84) supports:

• 80% reductions of CO2 production by 2050.
• 40 mpg fleet-wide automotive standard by 2017.
• 20% renewable electrical energy standard by 2020.
• 10% reduction in energy consumption by 2020.
• Rejecting investment in liquid coal.

Bill Richardson (82) supports:

• 80% reductions of CO2 production by 2050.
• 50 mpg fleet-wide automotive standard.
• 30% renewable electrical energy standard by 2020 and 50% by 2050.
• 20% increase in energy productivity.
• A ban on new coal plants unless they capture and store emissions; he opposes liquid coal.

Readers may note that all of the preceding five leaders on environmental stewardship are members of the Democratic Party. They will be competing against one another to win their party’s nomination over the course of the primary elections, which will run from January to September of 2008. Make sure to register to vote several weeks prior to your state’s primary elections in order to vote to nominate your choice of presidential candidate.

Readers who align more closely with the Republican Party may also be interested to know which Republican presidential candidates are offering solutions to climate change. Most ‘08 Republican candidates have as strong a record of opposing environmental protection legislation and/or have no stated positions about the country’s energy goals and issues related to climate change. However, some Republican candidates are looking to support legislation that would benefit the climate. John McCain and Mike Huckabee lead their party on legislative forsight to address climate change. Even still, Mr. McCain has opposed fuel efficiency legislation and neither candidate has a stated position on coal. The only other candidate from this party to offer some hint of beneficial legislative promises on climate change is Mitt Romney, although he opposes fuel efficiency standards "as a stand alone measure," has no position on renewable energy, and supports liquid coal.

For more information on the positions of the 2008 presidential candidates on the environment, the energy industry, and climate change, see the resources listed below or visit the LCV reference chart for presidential candidates on climate change.

References and Resources:

Where the Candidates Currently Stand | League of Conservation Voters, Heatison.org

’08: On The Record | League of Conservation Voters

Presidential Candidates weigh in on Energy Policy | Solarnation

The Candidates | League of Conservation Voters, Heatison.org

Mike Garofalo’s Blog on the presidential candidates | GO

Photo Source:

White House Back | US Government

If our goal is to encourage environmental protection legislation, it is our responsibility (indeed, our exciting privilege) to educate ourselves on the environmental impact of local and state propositions and vote accordingly. If our goal is to support elected officials who serve our interests as citizens (such as clean air and water), we have to make our interests known and hold officials accountable with our power to vote them in or out of office. Voting is possibly the single most important way to ensure strong civil liberties, government accountability, and policies that protect the health of the environment in which we live.

For one source of information on the environmental policies and view of the 2008 presidential candidates, take a look at Mike Garofalo’s blog on GO, which addresses each candidate one by one. The League of Conservation Voters also offers a quick reference database of the candidates for president, graded by their response to a series of questions on the environment.

We need no reminding that in this 2008 presidential election, there is a lot at stake. With President Bush spouting off about World War III, and with the U.S. still refusing to acknowledge its share of responsibility on climate change, it may even be an understatement to simply say that there’s a lot at stake. If you are a citizen of the United States, you can be assured that your decision to vote has the power to affect change — potentially positive change — the world over.

Here’s the good news: in the 2004 elections, voter turnout was higher than in the 2000 elections by 3.6%. With any hope, in 2008 the numbers will be even greater. The sad news, however, is that even in 2004, still less than two thirds of the country performed their civic duty of voting: 58.3%. Of people age 24-44, only 52.2% voted in 2004 and for the age group 18-24 just 41.9% voted. (U.S. Census Bureau)

So what gives? Do people not know that they have a "Get Out of Work Free" card on voting day that requires employers to let employees out of work long enough to vote? This alone should be enough to motivate us to head to the polling booths in droves whenever there’s an election. Do people cavalierly forget when voting day comes around? Or does half of our population actually think that they can’t make a difference by voting and recklessly forfeit their suffrage?

Maybe you know somebody who desperately wants positive reform in this country and a change of political agenda, but who suffers from voter apathy: the apathetic rebel. The apathetic rebel imagines that s/he’s doing something extraordinary by not voting — that s/he’s somehow taking a stance against the status quo by brushing off democracy. But how can a person change the system when s/he won’t tell the system how it should change. We do this by voting.

So wherever you are, register to vote. You can register at your local post office and your registration must be up to date with your current address. By doing so, you are sending a strong message that you care about the course of environmental, social, and political events at home and abroad. It’s easy to put off registering and the primary elections are coming up fast. Maybe you vote Republican, maybe Democratic, maybe Green. However you vote, the most important thing is simply that you do vote. As John Lennon said, "We came here to show and to say to all of you that apathy isn’t it, that we can do something!"

References and Resources:

Home | Rock The Vote!

Earth Trends: More Democracy, Better Environment? | The World Resource Institute

Mike Garofalo’s blog | GO

Presidential Profiles, 2008 | The League of Conservation Voters

Voting and Registration | U.S. Census Bureau

Photo Source:

Your Vote Is Your Voice | Flickr

Twenty-eight states have introduced hemp legislation and fifteen have passed legislation; seven, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Montana, West Virginia and North Dakota have removed barriers to its production or research. Of those five, only North Dakota has set into motion a state regulatory system administered by the state’s agriculture department. It placed into law strict guidelines concerning the cultivation and harvesting of hemp seed and oil, and a licensing process that makes it completely legal under not only North Dakota Law, but federal law as well, to grow industrial hemp and harvest the sterilized seeds and oil for sale in the marketplace.

But no matter what they’ve done, it’s still a catch-22 situation. The farmer’s intent doesn’t matter in the eyes of the DEA, plant one stalk of industrial hemp and the DEA can charge you with growing and possessing a controlled substance, fine you, and possibly take away your property.

Two North Dakota farmers, State Representative David Monson and Wayne Hauge have done something no one else has apparently done in the country, sue the DEA, asking it to make a distincting between industrial hemp and marihuana.

I spoke with the attorney who filed the suit in Federal Court in Bismark, North Dakota, Tim Purdon, a member of the Vogel Law Firm in that city. He explains the lawsuit.

Other sites of interest:

H.B. 1009 in PDF

Vote Hemp

Washingtonwatch